Fremont High School juniors attended the Oakland Unified School District Career Expo in mid-April at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Downtown Oakland.

Students circulated from table to table visiting a variety of booths ranging from community colleges, four-year universities and organizations offering internship and mentoring opportunities.

Those who attended loved having a diversity of opportunities for getting an internship. Bertha Saavedra, a junior in the Mandela Academy said, “It was really interesting to see a lot of teenagers our age looking at jobs and internships and other colleges.”

Fremont held a preparatory mock interview on March 29 to prepare students for the Expo. The school invited industry partners to interview students and evaluate them based upon their professionalism. “No other school had a mock interview like Fremont High,” said Wafa Faris, Fremont’s work-based learning liaison who is responsible for creating professional learning experiences for students such as internships, job shadowing, the mock interview and the career expo.

To prepare for the mock interview, students also printed out their résumés and researched the organizations in attendance.

During the career expo, students were encouraged to dress professionally but not all students had professional attire. Approximately twenty-two percent of students did not have professional clothes to wear for the Career Expo.

However, Fremont staff donated professional clothing to students. Ms.Torres, Ms. Bulman and Ms. Lockie donated the bulk of clothing.Students loved it and we’re happy with their new clothes.

Ms. Faris organized the professional clothing closet. She said, “My main goal [is to] get students to think differently about themselves.”

Gilbert Pete, Greg Cluster, Alcian Lindo, and Emiliano Sanchez were the four main organizers of the OUSD event. Pete handled all the industries partnerships that are in the city of Oakland, Cluster was the coordinator that ran the meetings and handled the internships, and Sanchez worked on getting transportation for the schools.

Ms. Lindo and Ms. Faris are work-based learning liaisons at specific school sites, such as Fremont. Ms. Faris said she expected it to be more hectic but she still felt the energy in the atmosphere. Overall, students represented themselves well and were professional.

“If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

Oriana Ides, Fremont’s community schools manager said this quote by David P. Campbell influenced her life. The quote further motivated her to go back to college, get her degree, finish with straight A’s and take care of her son, who not only was her biggest source of motivation but also her new found source of empowerment and belonging.

For most of her school life in middle and high school, Ides didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment or belonging. “In high school, I didn’t feel connected to anything,” she said. During her junior year in high school, Ides found what soon became a part of her future career, with the influence of one of her best friends having a baby. Around this time she got involved in politics and became an organizer for the community to create positive change in the world–none of which included school.

Her parents forced her to graduate from high school. Shortly after graduation, Ides had her son. She began to acknowledge her sense of belonging and continued her education in college knowing that she wanted to be a part of young folks healing. Her goal was to provide and create the space to do so and to make school better and more useful for students.

“I know school doesn’t need to be oppressive and traumatizing and unsafe for children of color,” Ides said. “I’ve been a part of a school that humanizes education, that makes learning relevant and empowering for young people, and so I know that’s something different.” She doesn’t want black and brown young folks to continue being mistreated and be at the bottom of this unequal system.

Both in and out of work, Ides is a very enjoyable person. Her passions include building healthy relationships with young people and being a part of healing communities. “I cook, I laugh, I dance, I bead, I’m a mother, I’m a daughter, I like to be outside and play with my kitty.”

She continued, “There’s a fire inside of me that only the closest people in my life can see—the side eye, the shade, the hypercritical part of me. But Scorpios are extremely passionate. They are extremely stubborn, relentless and resilient. They are also someone who is critical and suspicious of what’s happening around them.Those things are really true for me.”

As the community school’s manager, she is responsible for coordinating mental health behavioral and academic intervention for students and building partnerships with community-based organizations to provide creative interventions. “Here on campus there’s a number of young woman that are at risk of childhood exploitation and sexual exploitation, so for me it’s understanding what the risk factors are.” Ides works with teachers to identify students at risk, helping to provide support for these students by facilitating a support group on campus once a week.

Looking back Ides “would have started in the summer so I could’ve got some really important pieces of the work developed before the school year started.”

Students and Coworkers agree that Ides is a motivating, patient, hardworking, helpful and caring person. They also mark her as one of the best people to consult with about college and everything to go along with it.

“Lead to Excell” was the motto for this year’s Latino Student Honor Roll. The annual event honored 55 Fremont High School students in April at the Cathedral of Christ the Light near Lake Merrit.

Over the past 31 years, the Educational Coalition for Hispanics in Oakland, also known as ECHO, organizes the event to recognize local Latino students from sixth to 12th grade who have a GPA of 3.0 and above. They also encourage them to continue their academic success in school.

“ECHO makes a difference in the school work that I do,” said Javier Garcia Valdes, a junior at Fremont. “It influences and encourages me to do better in school. Once you’re up there and you get awarded you feel proud of yourself. You feel like you not only made yourself proud but also your family that are watching in the audience.”

During the event, great role models from the Oakland community came together to share their personal struggles and accomplishments they had when they were in school, in order to inspire students to keep striving for success.

Jorge Cantu Leram, a former OUSD teacher was one the speakers at the event. “Latino students are not recognized and this is a way to pay attention to their creativity and imagination,” said Leram.

A group of students, who are part of the ECHO program, performed “bailes folklóricos,” which are traditional dances that showcase Mexican folk culture with ballet dance characteristics.

ECHO also supports Latino students by awarding scholarships to eligible students who have received the honor roll award. In addition to helping students, they support families by providing bilingual support and workshops that address the issues Latinos face today.

]]>Senioritis: How it Affects You and Your Senior Yearhttps://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/showcase/2017/05/25/senioritis-how-it-affects-you-and-your-senior-year/
Thu, 25 May 2017 16:48:40 +0000https://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/?p=4796

When you Google the definition of senioritis, this is what you will find: A supposed affliction of students in their final year of high school or college, characterized by a decline in motivation or performance.

Senioritis decreases your motivation to do work and causes grades to drop. Some symptoms of the condition are boredom, apathy (Google it, I already have the first stage of senioritis), fear of change, and burnout (no more fuel left in the brain). Below are a series of interviews conducted with seniors about said affliction and its effects on their senior year.

Q & A with Fremont seniors about senioritis

Raquel Serrato Romero

G&G: How do you think you’re doing in your senior year so far?

Romero: At the beginning, I had a lot of enthusiasm and I was really determined and motivated but throughout the year I feel like I’ve been procrastinating. I’ve been slowing myself down, and I’ve also been struggling with classes especially since I have 4 AP classes. So yeah I feel like I’m doing fine.

Q: Do you know what senioritis is?

A: Senioritis is like the affliction of every college or high school student towards their [senior] year when they start trying as hard as they normally do at the beginning of the year. They feel like they’re fed up and they also feel the need of just getting out of high school, just rushing things through and like not doing their work or not putting enough effort into what they’re doing.

Q: Do you think you have senioritis?

A: Oh my God, partially yes. I thought I would never go through it but I’ve had the symptoms and all that. I’ve had procrastination a lot or I’m just sleeping in class, but I feel like it’s also because a lot of people have jobs during their senior year, so that’s something that could be affecting their performance overall, like their academic performance.

Q: What’s one thing that is stressing you out the most this year?

A: The senior project, of course, that’s a big thing. It’s like my biggest concern because if I don’t pass, I don’t graduate. Also my AP classes, like the tests and all that, especially college, like when you go and fill out applications or if you’re gonna get enough financial aid or whether you’re gonna make it to a 4-year [university] or 2-year [university].

Marlini Mesui

G&G: How do you think you’re doing in your senior year so far?

Mesui: Not good and not bad, somewhere in the middle.

Q: Do you know what senioritis is?

A: No, not really.

Q: Do you think you have senioritis?

A: I think I do. Well, I had it at the beginning of the year.

Q: What’s one thing that is stressing you out the most this year?

A: The senior project, especially with the deadline.

Valeria Fernandez

G&G: How do you think you’re doing in your senior year so far?

Fernandez: I think I’m doing good. I’m keeping up with my work. I’m staying up late to try and finish all my work on time. I’m trying not to turn in all my work late because I know that if I do that all my work is going to pile and I’m going to get stressed out.

Q: Do you know what senioritis is?

A: I do know what senioritis is. They [Ms. P] explained it to us at the beginning of the year.

Q: Do you think you have senioritis?

A: I have a little bit of senioritis. Sometimes I procrastinate and I slack off, but I do try to keep up with my work. I have A’s, so I don’t think I have it like some other people do.

Q: What’s one thing that is stressing you out the most this year?

A: I think two things. Ms. P’s class is really getting to me because it’s deadline after deadline and the senior project. It causes more pressure because it’s something you have to pass in order to graduate, so that’s what I’m worried about.

]]>Teens Plan to Party the Night Away in Maskshttps://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/event-calendar/campus-events/2017/05/05/fremont-prom-teens-plan-to-party-the-night-away-in-masks/
Fri, 05 May 2017 22:36:10 +0000https://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/?p=4780

Fremont High School is hosting their annual 2017 masquerade-themed prom on Friday, May 26. Although it is not mandatory, it is encouraged that students get into the spirit by bringing a mask.

“Prom is going to be really cool,” said Athsia Ramsey, a senior at Fremont High School. “Everybody is going to be there, so it should be fun. All the couples are going to be there dancing and having a good time.”

In preparation for prom, the Oakland Public Education Fund hosted a prom dress giveaway called “Dress By West” at Oakland High School in April. Students signed up online for an appointment to shop from over 1000 dresses, consisting of different designs and sizes ranging from 0-30.

“Although they didn´t have exactly what I was looking for, it was still helpful for me because my parents couldn’t afford anything this year,” said Destiny Shabazz, a student from another OUSD high school.

The clinic has four prom dresses available for students looking to save money. Students should ask around and keep an ear out for more opportunities to score free suits and dresses.

All students attending or thinking about attending this year’s Fremont prom, remember the masquerade themed prom will be held at HS Lordships in Berkeley, CA from 7 p.m. until midnight. One guest is allowed per student, as long as they are under 21 and fill out a form that can be found in the main office.

Tickets for prom will be sold in the main office for the rest of this month. Ticket prices increased in May and are now $80 for a single ticket and $130 for couples ticket. Students with any other questions about prom can speak with the assistant principal, Ms. Baez, in the front office.

]]>Ranking the Bay’s Burgers – from local spots to national chainshttps://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/features/2017/05/04/ranking-the-bays-burgers-from-local-spots-to-national-chains/
Thu, 04 May 2017 21:23:37 +0000https://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/?p=4766

You’re probably wondering what the heck is The King’s Coffee Shop? All that we can tell you is that it’s a pretty good burger place, but how well does it stack up against well-known burger places such as Five Guys and In-N-Out? Right out the gate, we’re here to tell you that it holds it’s own against these well-known burger places.

We’ve ranked our favorite burger spots in order from the least to the best.

LEAST FAVORITE: IN-N-OUT

555 Willie Stargell Ave, Alameda, CA 94501

First off let’s talk about a well-known burger place throughout Oakland and California: In-N-Out. In-N-Out’s burger is a pretty good burger, but in our opinion, it’s the least quality out of all three establishments. The spread is great, and unlike anything else, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s overwhelming and dominates the burger. You taste more sauce than the burger.

What In-N-Out lacks in a burger, they make it up for in fries. You can’t go to In-N-Out and not get the Animal Fries, which consist of hand-cut potato fries prepared in 100% vegetable oil topped with American cheese, grilled onions, and their secret spread sauce. All of the flavors blend well together and take fries to the next level.

In-N-Out comes in at 3rd place for us. The burger and the fries are great and the price is even better, costing you around $8 for a Double-Double Burger combo which includes the burger, fries and a medium drink. But it just doesn’t stack well against the other places in terms of flavor. We know we’ll be getting a lot of hate for this one, but honestly, people overhype this place.

SECOND RUNNER UP: KING’S COFFEE SHOP

3000 38th Ave, Oakland, CA 94619

Next is King’s Coffee Shop, which is a surprisingly good burger place and not a lot of people have heard of it. First off, their burgers are surprisingly flavorful and delicious. The combination of bacon, cheese, meat, on a bun and whatever toppings you choose to add on it – all work well together.

The fries, on the other hand, are subpar. They’re really nothing special. You can easily make them at home yourself. There’s nothing wrong with frozen fries at all, don’t get us wrong, but they just don’t stand out. Overall, The King’s Coffee Shop is a pretty good place. If you’re looking for a decently priced burger, at about $7, you can get both the burger and fries, but don’t expect much when it comes to their fries.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST: FIVE GUYS

Alameda South Shore Center, 2254 S Shore Center, Alameda, CA 94501

Last but certainly not least is Five Guys, the best burger place in our opinion. It may hurt your wallet and will cause you to feel sad about it, but you’ll be completely satisfied. We’re going to just come out and say it, Five Guys has the best burgers hands down. The combination of hand-formed patties, bacon, Kraft American cheese and the 15 different toppings they have to offer, ranging from your basic ketchup and mayonnaise to the classic A.1. Original Steak Sauce – it is just unbeatable by comparison.

Five Guys has good fries as well. Their fries are hand cut potatoes, with the skin still on, fried in a 100% peanut oil and are great. They’re plain and simple but sometimes plain and simple is better. If you want fries that have a little bit of kick to them, pick the cajun style fries.

In our opinion, Five Guys is the best burger joint, followed by King’s Coffee Shop, and finally, In-N-Out. That’s just our opinion. You’ll only know the best burger place when you try it for yourself.

The Break Bread event took place after school by the basketball courts. All Fremont students were invited to eat food, play games, and listen to music as well spend quality time with teachers and friends.

“I’m hoping everyone can laugh together, eat together and tell some stories. Maybe [they] even make a new friend, and just be a part of the culture,” said Coach Scot, Fremont’s P.E. teacher, boys basketball coach and athletic director.

The purpose of the event was to build a connection with African American culture as well to connect people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Southern soul food like mac and cheese, fried chicken, sweet potatoes, cornbread and other delicious foods were provided for the Fremont community.

Coach Scot said the event helped people understand Black culture, Black unity, and Black power. He also said he hopes in the future Fremont could celebrate a different culture each month. “I think that would be good for the school,” he said. “We so have many different nationalities. I mean, I love everybody.”

Even though this event featured African American culture, many other ethnicities were present. Everyone was together as one which made the celebration more special. The great diversity that was in the space was unique.

]]>NBA Playoffs are Off the Groundhttps://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/sports/2017/04/30/nba-playoffs-are-off-the-ground/
Mon, 01 May 2017 01:32:54 +0000https://www.fremontgreenandgold.com/?p=4710

The NBA Playoffs are finally here and it’s a very exciting time for basketball fans.

The best-of-seven elimination tournament consists of 16 teams—eight teams from the Western conference and eight teams from the Eastern conference, playing against one another to make it to the NBA finals. The ultimate goal is to win the NBA finals and bring a championship to their city and their fans.

But not everybody’s team made it to the playoffs. “You’re just asking for an F, like I got my grade book open to AP Lang,” Ms. Zapata said jokingly when asked about her team not making it to the playoffs. “How do I feel about the [Los Angeles] Lakers not making the playoffs?” Ms. Zapata is a notoriously avid Lakers fan and an English teacher at Fremont High School. “It’s basically you win the championship or nothing. Everybody is mad in LA.”

She also shared that she asked Santa Claus for Kevin Durant, but Santa clearly didn’t give Ms. Zapata what she asked for. Instead, Kevin Durant was recruited by the Warriors and has been averaging about 25 PPG (points per game), 8 RPG (rebounds per game), and 5 APG (assists per game), a down year from when he was in the Oklahoma City Thunder, but that’s what happens when you have three other all-stars on your team.

The first round of the playoffs looks to be exciting, mainly because it’s the NBA playoffs and the intensity is always kicked up a notch during the tournament. The matchup that stands out the most is the Utah Jazz versus the Los Angeles Clippers. Both teams had a 51-31 record during the regular season and their all-star power matches up well. Don’t be surprised if the series ends up going to seven games.

The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be the teams favored to make it to the NBA finals this year—and for the third consecutive year (What a surprise). Don’t count out any other team though, because anything can happen.

Both Ms. Zapata and Kevin Nguyen, a junior in Mandela Academy, said they’re betting on the Warriors and Cavaliers to make it to the finals. “The Cavs seem strong, but I don’t think they’re strong enough to beat the Warriors,” Nguyen said. Ms. Zapata also said she thinks the Warriors need Durant for the win.

The Warriors and the Cavaliers have faced each other in the finals for the past two years now, with each winning one final a piece. Basketball fans know what happened in last year’s finals when the Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit. Could we see them winning it all again this year? We’ll have to wait until June or when they get bounced out of the playoffs to find out.

Don’t under-estimate San Antonio Spurs though. They have been one of the most consistent teams over the past decade. The Spurs can possibly upset the Warriors if they meet in the conference finals.

The most important thing is that basketball fans get to witness their favorite sport being played at a very high level, right? No way. Every fan wants to see their favorite team hoist up that NBA Championship title or at least see the team they despise the most lose, maybe even blowing a 3-1 lead on the way.

I chose to write & direct the P.S.A. “Who’s the Victim?” and include dramatic scenes of violence and the use of profanity. I believe that a simple Stop Bullying P.S.A. wouldn’t really reach out to people. I wanted to use violence in our P.S.A. because normally people, in this case students, won’t expect violence to occur both ways in a bullying scenario. I along with my fellow acquaintances, argued that profanity should be allowed in a bullying P.S.A. because bullying isn’t something that happens without profanity, most of the time it’s verbal abuse that hurts the victim more than physical abuse.

I believe that our P.S.A. is not only put together well enough to scare people but I also believe that our P.S.A. has power in itself to actually speak to people in ways that others might not, it shows how the victim isn’t always silent in ways others wouldn’t think, it also shows, how the victim isn’t the only one that can be bullied.
In all we made this P.S.A in an attempt to scare the audience into not bullying and to inform people that violence can happen anywhere.

Bay Area native Martin Reynolds never planned on being a journalist. He found it by accident when he transferred to Merritt College and signed up for a class called, “Writing for Mass Media.” Now he’s an investigative journalist that works for the Center for Investigative Reporting promoting diversity in the media.

Reynolds came to Fremont High in December and spoke to students about his path to journalism and his experience working in the media industry.

According to Reynolds, one of the challenges of being a person of color in a very white and male-dominated industry is that he doesn’t always feel like he fits in. “Who I was as a person didn’t necessarily jive with the organization that I was in or the people that I was around,” Reynolds said.

His background as an artist and person of color always made him stand out. Before Reynolds became a journalist, he was a rapper in a hip-hop group called Ho-Flow. “The notion that you can be who you are as a person, you can bring to your work,” he said of his transition from artist to journalist. “Being a lyricist and songwriter made me a better storyteller and journalist. In many ways, I saw the world differently, not just professionally.”

One of the first stories that Reynolds published as a Merritt reporter was about the San Francisco earthquake in 1989, when the second floor of the Bay Bridge collapsed. He went to the I-80 freeway and wrote an article about it from a first person point of view.

In 2005, Reynolds graduated from the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education which focuses on promoting the fair and accurate coverage of communities of color by the media. Reynolds has also worked with San Francisco State University and University of California, Berkeley as a mentor to undergraduate and graduate journalism students.

Reynolds did not just answer questions from students during his Fremont visit. He also asked every student in the classroom where they consumed their news and what interests them.

Some students shared with Reynolds what they plan to doin thefuture, and he provided them with some valuable feedback. “Don’t seek to be successful for the sake of proving others wrong. Seek to be successful because you want to give something,” Reynolds said.